Among this type of vehicle body side structures, there is a structure for coupling a portion extending from a roof to an upper portion of a center pillar. A center pillar is plastically formed as a separate body by using a high tension steel plate, a roof rail is plastically formed by using a normal steel plate, and a vehicle body outer panel coupling portion couples the center pillar and the roof rail near the roof rail (e.g., refer to Patent Literature 1).
There is also a vehicle body in which coupled portions are covered. In this vehicle body, respective pillars such as a center pillar are divided into upper and lower two portions. Stepped portions are formed at boundary portions where the upper portions and the lower portions are coupled and seal tape is stuck to the stepped portion, with which a seal member provided to a door comes in contact, out of the stepped portions (e.g., refer to Patent Literature 2).
However, an outward appearance of the vehicle body side structure disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is not good, because a step is formed by a plate material laid on the coupling portion between the upper portion of the center pillar and the roof rail or a welding mark remains.
In the vehicle body side structure disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the seal tape is stuck only to a position corresponding to the seal member provided to the door and therefore seal tape does not exist at the remaining stepped portions.
In this manner, the stepped portions formed at the coupling portions are exposed and remain, which detracts from visual quality. If large seal tape adapted to the remaining stepped portions is used to cover the remaining stepped portions, thin edges of the seal tape (seal member) corrugate and it is difficult to carry out the operation. Moreover, the thin edges of the seal tape (seal member) may not uniformly come in contact, which may detract from visual quality.